Something to consider. I study a lot about genetics. It seems Keto diets help with neurological problems as well as seizures. Has anyone found keto diet done well to help RLS? I’d love to hear.
Keto and RLS : Something to consider. I... - Restless Legs Syn...
Keto and RLS
Written by
RCHD
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
51 Replies
•
Diet certainly has a huge part to play in RLS.Seems to be an issue with the biome.
Don't know enough about the keto diet, but if it works for people, then go with it.
Basically, I find that avoiding any processed foods at all suits my body.
The Paleo diet was the one that got my weight issues under control.
Thanks for the post.
I tried KETO for 4 months, lost a lot of weight. It really didn’t help my RLS. It did help my weight, but I didn’t feel “well”.
Then I tried homemade Kefir. A whole lot of work, I am sure there were some benefits. It didn’t make much difference for my RLS.
Iron and Dipyridamole (not at the same time) work for me.
An acquaintance who has PLMD has been on strict keto for over a year now. She has been very disciplined with the diet. She says that it hasn't helped her PLMD.
I have severe RLS and have been on a strict keto diet for over a year. It has not improved my RLS.
Interesting, my husband’s symptoms were always less when he followed an anti inflammatory diet. It’s just hard for people to do.
Interesting..When I began taking 50mg voltaren daily for inflammation & hip pain, my RLS stopped dead for almost a week. It might be an inflammatory condition although dietary changes don’t seem to be making much difference-
Are you on any medicines for RLS? Have you had your ferritin checked?
I suffered badly in hospital after a tkr with restless legs, it was carbs in every meal, got a lot better when I got home and cut the carbs down, if I have a cheat day my legs tell me that I shouldn't have done it.
Hi bea, what’s a tkr?
Total knee replacement.
Oh, ok. And the carbs gave you rls? Are you sure it wasn't meds? Some anti-nausea meds, for instance, are absolutely terrible for us rls sufferers. After 1 Primperan pill I couldn't keep my legs still for fully 36 hours. The anti-nausea meds in question (and some other meds) are dopamine antagonists. To be strictly avoided by us!
When I had a double total hip replacement in 2018, the meds gave me increased my RLS. It was horrible. I was supposed to be recuperating from major surgery and I was sitting up in bed, unable to sleep while my legs were running a marathon.
I have found that I can elimnate my rls completely by avoiding inflammatory foods which involves a diet almost free of refined carbs and starches and almost free of refined seed oils. I don't even eat bread and only brown rice.
Awesome yes it for sure can help many if they do the work. It’s hard to eliminate those foods but the benefit is great!!
I even eliminate brown rice. I follow the "10:1 or under" ratio (ratio of total carbohydrates to total fiber) from "A Statin-Free Life", the book you recommended. Rice (white or brown) fails this ratio. Try switching to farro. I still need my iron supplement but otherwise, drug free.
I limit the amount of brown rice I have at any meal and that works for me so I see no reason to change, after all the Chinese and many others had healthy lives until they found an easy way to produce white rice and started to eat processed foods.
If I have rice, especially brown rice I will boil it with lots of water - I don't use the absorption method. The reason is that rice is known to absorb unhealthy amounts of arsenic and it doesn't matter whether it is organic or not. Crops grown in water tend to bring arsenic to the surface and absorb them. Just something to be aware of.healthline.com/nutrition/ar...
Thank you so much. I have been told to get on an anti-inflalmmatory diet for other issues so this gives more reason to get more stringent about it.
I notice my RLS gets worse on the keto diet
I have had really bad RLS in the past. It’s almost absent, these days.And yes, I’m on keto, but I don’t think that’s what did it. The great thing about keto is that you cut out processed foods, bread, and all that jazz. For sure helpful.
There is a bit of a problem with keto and that’s that you can get low in electrolytes. That’s bad for a lot of things - and possibly especially RLS.
So I take dr Berg’s electrolyte supplement, which has to be one of the best out there. It provides magnesium but also, crucially, a whole heap of potassium. Dr Berg pointed me to potassium (in one of his videos) long ago as a better remedy for RLS than magnesium. And yes, I’ve found potassium to be better.
I’m even better off if I eat heaps of leafy vegetables, which you can do on keto. If you eat those you get the minerals that may help you sleep, and fight RLS.
But my actual secret weapon against RLS (next to a safe iron supplement now and then - and you never want to overdo the iron, as that has other serious health risks) is s-adenosyl-methionine. I try to tell people on here all the time, but no one seems to pick up on it. Yet it 90% cures my RLS in a week, is entirely natural and also works against depression. Why on earth don’t people give it a try?
Interesting, first time I'm hearing about s-adenosyl-methionine supplementation. I have a few questions. What's the form you're taking? Is it over the counter or is it prescription? How much do you take? How often?
Hi Guillaume, it is all natural and therefore non-prescription. Its principal action is as an antidepressant. It increases dopamine (among others), which is why it works for depression and also for RLS, in which dopamine is equally a factor.BUT
There is a group of people, so-called overmethylators, who feel psychologically worse on SAMe instead of better. More people are undermethylators than are overmethylators, so it works well for the majority, but a sizeable minority don’t do well on it, psychologically. The good news is that you know within a week, 10 days maximum.
I take 400 mg a day. The university of Utrecht is currently giving it to depressed people at a dosage of 400 mg 3 times a day. For me, that would be a bit expensive, and 400 mg works fine. Taking it without food is best (and probably early in the day) but my stomach doesn’t like that at all, so I take it with a meal.
You have to get a good brand. SAMe disintegrates very quickly so you need a brand which packages it in individual blisters. They should be stored away from heat.
I currently use Nutralife, and have used Doctor’s Best, both from iHerb.com. I once got a batch from Doctor’s Best which gave me stomach pain, but I think I either had left them too much in the heat, or I didn’t take food with them. Just to be safe I switched to Nutralife, and that’s what I’ve taken ever since.
Re overmethylation/undermethylation: you can look up symptoms to determine which one you are, but that’s very confusing. Really the best thing for it is just to try the SAMe.
Good luck, and let me know how it goes.
Zyxx-I hear you and will try both. I have certainly seen the above mentioned in various studies and articles.
Yes, can you tell us exactly what brand you take and how much of the s-ad-meth? Hopefully I can find the Dr. Berg brand.
Thank you so much for sharing this again-many of us miss posts and/or the timing of joining this site can contribute to that.
PS-I see Dr. Berg's products on amazon but do not see the formulation you described. Please provide details. Thanks!
PPS! I have now found it-sorry. It's one of the powders. Although curiously, there is not much magnesium listed. Do you take capsules, too? Thanks!
No I don’t take capsules, I don’t love taking pills. According to dr Berg potassium helps more for RLS than magnesium does. That accords with my experience.I make a nice glass of hot water with a generous helping of dr Berg’s electrolytes in the evening, and often I fall asleep from it, within an hour. Not always, though.
So interesting to me that you don't take much magnesium-which is a staple for most of us on here. Thank you for the info and I am definitely going to order and try it out!
Well, you know, Teddi, I used to stuff myself to the gills with magnesium. Whenever I loaded up on magnesium again it would seem to help for a few days and then no more. So I’m still taking it but it’s obviously not the answer…or we’d all be cured.
Interestingly…I have a vid here in which dr Berg says RLS is a thiamin deficiency. He is an osteopath but very knowledgeable about human physiology, and has taught it at university.
Also, he used to have RLS, himself.
Zyxx-you said you take this powder in the evening and fall asleep from it....reading the amazon page there were many mentions of it giving an energy boost. Which I would not want-I would want to take before sleep, as well. So, just double-checking with you on that!
The dr Berg electrolytes, Teddi? So, potassium and magnesium? Wow, that’s surprising that people get an energy boost. They’re both actually calming minerals.
When I have a very stressed and anxious evening the electrolytes don’t help me - nothing does, at that point. To sleep, I mean. But on the average day, especially when I take a really big helping, I can’t even keep my eyes open anymore. That said, people’s biochemistry is so individual that the sky is the limit, in terms of effects.
About the “really big helping” - with magnesium it would be extremely hard to take too much, and I’m never concerned about that. With potassium there is a possibility of taking too much, and everyone should decide for themselves how big they think that risk is. On the whole, people overestimate the risks of taking too much potassium. Capsules with 99mg in them (which most do) are laughable.
You see, the daily recommended intake of K (potassium) is 4700 mg. Taking 99 mg isn’t even a drop in the ocean. I don’t worry about taking, say, 2 grams of K a day. After all, most of us don’t eat so many leafy vegetables that we ingest enough K for the day. Also, sodium is like the natural counterbalance to K, and dr Berg adds a little sodium to the electrolytes.
In summary: I’m not worried about taking more than dr Berg’s recommended dosage of K regularly, but you might.
I have tried Magnesium, iron & other supplements with no results. All I can say is the first time I took Diclofenac (voltaren) every day due to hip pain, I had no RLS for about five days. It literally stopped dead.I’m inclined to think it’s an inflammatory nerve condition & thiamine might help but I’m a healthy vegetarian likely to have enough thiamine daily.
Sad thing is, like everything that worked initially, the RLS returned after a week. I take codeine for it every alternate day as if it’s taken daily, I soon develop a tolerance for it. On day three of keto now though, it’s having nil effect on my legs & sleep. I don’t want to get used to taking two codeine tabs though.
Yeah I hear you…Many people do think RLS is an inflammatory condition.
To try to reduce RLS symptoms 40 years ago (I am now 85) ,I went from meat, cheese, refined foods, veggies and fruit daily to totally plant-based. RLS did not improve but other health problems dissapeared. By learning substitutes for old favorites, we found it easy and very satisfying. But RLS continued. A year ago I started studying how to improve your gut microbiome by eating foods with more fiber, fermented foods, drastically reducing sugar, white flour, and other refined foods, even olive oil. But we eat tons of complex carbs. I have no idea if this change has anything to do with it, but my RLS symptoms, which used to keep me up half the night, have decreased to the point I have reduced gabapentin from 900 mg to 300 and am ready to go to 150. I never used to have even one night of relief. Maybe I am just having a normal 85th inning break.
Regarding Keto diets, Dr. Michael Greger at nutritionfacts.org reports this from the research:
Oddly, the success of ketogenic diets against pediatric epilepsy seems to get conflated by keto diet proponents into suggesting it is beneficial for everyone.
By eschewing carbohydrates, you force your body to burn fat. And indeed, the amount of fat you burn shoots up when you eat a keto diet. At the same time, however, the fat you take in shoots up when you eat a keto diet. What happens to our overall body-fat balance? Body fat loss slows upon switching to the ketogenic diet.
Just looking at the scale, the ketogenic diet seems like a success, but what happens inside bodies tells a different story. On the keto diet, rates of body fat loss may slow by more than half, so most of what is lost is water. The reason less fat is burned on a ketogenic diet is presumably the same reason people who start fasting may start burning less fat: Without carbohydrates, the preferred fuel, our bodies start burning more of our own protein.
Inadequate intake of 17 micronutrients has been documented in those on ketogenic diets. Children have gotten scurvy, and some have even died from deficiency of the mineral selenium, which can cause sudden cardiac death. Bone fractures disproportionately plague children on ketogenic diets, along with growth stunting and kidney stones, and constipation is a frequently cited side effect. Keto diets have also been shown to reduce the richness and diversity of our gut flora, and all of that saturated fat can have a profound impact on the heart: A meta-analysis of four cohort studies following the diets, diseases, and deaths of more than a quarter million people found that those who eat lower-carb diets suffer a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality, meaning they live, on average, significantly shorter lives.
• in reply totom137
Your own experiences are very interesting and encouraging, but Greger is a divisive figure and has his own agendas: I'm afraid that I don't trust him not to be selective in his presentation of 'facts'
Hi Tom, like Andy I thank you for detailing your experiences, and I will certainly keep those in mind - but what Greger says about keto doesn't impress me. Keto is, like biochemistry in general, a huge subject. Greger's insights strike me as superficial. For instance, children getting scurvy on keto is of no interest at all, if indeed it really happens.
You can get scurvy on most diets if you avoid foods with vitamin C, right? If you go on the Weight Watchers diet and eat no foods with vitamin C you may get scurvy. That doesn't mean the Weight Watchers diet causes scurvy.
The keto diet is a specific variety of a low carb diet. If you wish, you can do that in a very unhealthy way. Any diet should be done in a healthy way. Dr Berg (see youtube videos) advocates, and has eaten for many years, a keto diet with really large amounts of vegetables.
You see my point, I think: the keto diet does not lead to scurvy. People not eating vegetables may lead to scurvy (although that's actually not a given.)
I've read a lot of PubMed research on keto. It can, for instance, play an important role in the treatment of cancer. Mind, not all cancers. But most. The most healthy thing to do is probably to cycle in and out of a ketogenic diet. This is likely how our ancestors ate.
Thanks for the info!
I'm pleased to hear the S-adenosyl-l-methionine is working for you.
The quote above "We study 41,843 people who....." is taken from eHealthMe. In my view the quote is misleading because it's not really a study of the relationship between S-adenosyl-l-methionine and Restless legs syndrome. It's moreso a measure of the incidence of people who self-report taking S-a-l-m and also mention whether or not they have restless legs OR who have restless legs and report whether or not they take S-a-l-m.
---
Re. eHealthMe: This website can be misleading when looking at health related information. It reports single personal experiences from individuals on various medications or with medical conditions. These experiences are from the patient’s perspective and have not necessarily been analyzed or confirmed by healthcare professionals to ensure the validity of the statements.
Taken from: pharmacy-nutrition.usask.ca...
Zyxx• in reply to
Ok, good point. I did think the way it was formulated was rather odd. I'm going to remove my comment.
I’ve just started a vegetarian keto diet of mainly veggies, tofu, nuts, eggs & dairy. I’ve reached ketosis-1.5mmol/L checked for the first time today..My RLS has been bad over the last few days. It was in a bad phase before so it’s hard to tell. I’m wide awake heading to bed & it’s taking me hours to fall asleep even with codeine every second night.
Keto certainly doesn’t appear to be helping.
Not what you're looking for?
You may also like...
Keto diet
Has anyone had success on keto diet. Since I started 3 weeks ago RLS has almost completely gone...
Keto diet and healthy gut biome
I have RLS, PLMD all my life, and other complex health problems being worked up now. So far the...
Did someone previously say something about the Keto diet helping RLS??
Hello 👋,
Sorry for being dippy but did someone say a while ago that going on the keto diet...
Significant RLS improvement!
I have tried soo many things to improve my RLS...taking magnesium, iron, tens machines, ice baths...
statins and RLS
My doctor wants me to take statins but I am so afraid they will trigger RLS as mine are fairly well...
Antibiotics and RLS
Cyclobenzaprine and RLS?
RLS and sciatica
Breastfeeding and RLS
RLSModeration team
KaarinaAdministrator
